New Garden Innovation looking for feedback

[omavor]

This is a new design of alternating valve. Saves on pipe and solenoids. Uses a single moving part and is cheaper and more durable than the Galcon alternating valve.

See youtube videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTnNhrEQ_WtfWyL2rIFijVw?

 

[Mr_Yan]

You're still having trouble closing off the OFF side. It looks like the OFF side is on 50% of the time the ON side is. Time for the next rev.

 

[omavor]

No it's just a sealing issue because the device is made from store bought components. Not possible to provide the tolerances required for total sealing. Manufacturing in an injection mould would solve that.

 

[omavor]

You're still having trouble closing off the OFF side. It looks like the OFF side is on 50% of the time the ON side is. Time for the next rev.

I was hoping for more feedback on where/how/if people could see a role for this in their garden.

 

[w_r_ranch]

As I have a much larger irrigation system, this would not be a viable option at this location (nor at any of the houses I've owned)..

 

[omavor]

As I have a much larger irrigation system, this would not be a viable option at this location (nor at any of the houses I've owned)..

It would depend on your scale of irrigation and the length of the main supply lines. If your water source is quite distant from your lateral lines, and the supply pipe you use is expensive then it would save money on installation. That is because it would halve the number of supply lines and valves. The usual approach to small and large scale irrigation is to run zone lengths according to flow and pressure available. I set the length and number of sprinklers to the max the flow and pressure allows. Each zone has to be provided with a mains supply line. By using a common supply line for each pair of zones I only need 1 valve and 1 supply line.

The savings are only gained at installation. Another application is where the water pressure at a site has fallen due to say loss of aquifer pressure or more people drawing on the source. The irrigation system can be remediated by splitting each zone and adding the valve. This essentially creates smaller zones that can be alternated without adding more supply line using the existing flow and pressure.

That is basically what I did in my garden. I could not run a 5 sprinkler zone. Instead of installing 2 zones and 2 solenoids I installed the valve to create alternating subzones. Saved a solenoid (in fact I just use a single battery timer) and saved supply pipe.

Thank you for your comments though.

 

[Mr_Yan]

I use a watering can or gravity feed hose from my rain water pigs to my raised beds. EXCEPT for my hydroponics. There I am designing a solenoid valve and pump operated closed loop system.

Professionally I control fluid flow (dairy and flavoring syrups) in kitchen systems. When you turn one on you can't have the other(s) turning on too. What I saw in that video requires a redesign or at least a rebuild.

 

[omavor]

I use a watering can or gravity feed hose from my rain water pigs to my raised beds. EXCEPT for my hydroponics. There I am designing a solenoid valve and pump operated closed loop system.

Professionally I control fluid flow (dairy and flavoring syrups) in kitchen systems. When you turn one on you can't have the other(s) turning on too. What I saw in that video requires a redesign or at least a rebuild.

That's fine. Bear in mind that this is built from $5 of store components in 20 mins with a heat gun. You have said it doesn't fully seal. Exactly. That's because sealing surfaces require fit and tolerances that can't be achieved on this scale without manufacture. A true injection mould manufacture would fix that as it does for all liquid carrying devices. This is just a manufacturing issue. Not a design issue.

I'm sure this valve would not work with viscous substances since it relies on flow.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[wolffman]

In the valve industry, this is called a 3-way valve. My take...PVC pipe is dirt cheap. So are mass-produced 2-way solenoid valves.

Is the valve controlled by one signal or two?

 

[GeorgeVance]

I think that it is an awesome product. It allows two zone watering by alternating the side that is "on" each time it starts. One of friend is using it. His setup is he has a single valve that is driving this device and it has two programs A and B. A runs 6:00-6:30 and B runs 7:00-7:30. Every day zone 1 is watered at 6:00 and zone 2 is watered at 7:00. Note that there needs to be a full stop to the water flow for the switch to the other side to take place. The full stop can be just a few seconds or can be longer, like 30 minutes in my setup. Anyway, this thing saved his time and money and he is glad he stumbled on it. He did not find any significant loss of pressure in his gardening with it.